One of my favorite groups of fishes is the dwarf armored cats: Corydoras, Aspidoras, Brochis and Scleromystax. I always have a few varieties of these fish in my tanks. Currently I have about a dozen species in my fishroom. I seldom try to induce spawning with these fish since I am happy just to be able to enjoy having them around. This is my tale of what happens when I try.
Scleromystax barbatus started to show up in the Milwaukee area about eight years ago and since I had never had them before, I needed them. They were not cheap but fairly reasonable. I took home a half dozen of these beauties. I set them up in an established tank and watched them die one by one over the next couple weeks. There were no signs of disease; they just died. I attributed the loss to problems due to a weakened condition from importation. More showed up a few weeks later, but by this time I did what I always recommend but seldom do, I looked them up in a few of my books to find out more about them.
Scleromystax barbatus is noted for being one of the largest Corys. They can get to five inches. It is also one of the few that is dimorphic. The males are darker having a lot of black marking on the head and front half of their bodies. They also have a row of bristles along their “cheeks” at the bottom edge of the gill covers. Males also have much longer pectoral fins, which can be seen from an early age. Females look like a large Pepper Cory.
Scleromystax barbatus is a coastal form of Cory and at that time was coming from two areas. One a cool water environment near Rio de Janeiro where frost occurs sometimes during the winter. The second was a more upland region where more tropical temperatures could be expected. My original group came from the coast, so I probably killed them with too much heat. Armed with this information I invested in a second group. These I put in a lower tank that was running about 75 degrees. They survived and thrived, that is until the heater stuck and the tank went up to 90.
Having been burned twice in rapid succession, I put thoughts of barbatus on the back burner. Two people in the club were equally enamored of this fish and had bought stocks for themselves. Both bred them and were able to distribute some fry. I managed to get another small group. They died too.
A year or so later barbatus showed up again and I passed. It was hard but I was strong. Dan Cram was into a Cory phase and picked up some. He was having a lot of success with Corys and this was one he wanted. He raised them to the nicest barbatus I had ever seen, just like the pictures and at least four inches long, but for whatever reason he traded them in to Gary at Pets ‘n Things. When I saw them, I nearly wet myself. They were gorgeous but I had no room so they stayed. By the way Gary also had taken some home and successfully raised a bunch of babies.
About two years ago some wild caught barbatus arrived on the scene and I couldn’t resist. I put them in the bottom 10-gallon tank closest to the corner of my fishroom and took out the heater. This tank would go as low as 70 degrees during the winter and only get up to about 75 in the summer. It was the best I had. I had a large sponge filter and tap water in this tank and slowly over the next few water changes added soft water, about 80 ppm TDS. They are still in that tank.
First eggs from Scleromystax barbatus
I had had them about a year last May when one day I noticed a spawn. I was elated. There were about 35 eggs. I would usually try to remove the adults and hatch the eggs in the tank where they were spawned but I had no place for the adults. Many Cory breeders scrape the eggs off the glass and hatch them in a separate container so I decided to try this. The eggs were fresh and sticky. I rolled them off the glass with my fingers, being as gentle as I could to move them to a specimen cup for incubation. They tenaciously stuck to my fingers. I’d roll one off and feel around and find it had just rolled higher up my finger. I am not noted for having a lot of patience with tedious tasks, so I won’t go into the details of flicking sticky eggs off into a small specimen cup, but I’m glad there were no witnesses.
In spite of the extra agitation the eggs suffered, they all hatched. The group spawned again but I left them in the tank where they were eaten. The fry were kept in the specimen cup for 3 days when they hatched. I wanted to keep them in the cup until they were eating but it is hard to tell when a bottom dweller is freeswiming. I moved them into a bare 10 with a sponge filter after 4 more days. All the fry died. Luckily, the group was in a spawning cycle and spawned again at the beginning of June. I pulled 50 eggs this time and put them in a large specimen cup with aeration. I decided to keep them in the cup longer. Again, all the eggs hatched. These I kept in the cup for two weeks. They were eating and even growing. Every day I would exchange about 50% of their water with water from the parent’s tank. At two weeks, I set up the bare 10 with 50% of the water from the parents’ tank and about 10% fresh water.
I lost about half the fry. A partial success but an acceptable group was left for me to raise. These did well through the end of July and were nearly an inch long. I really wanted to turn them in for BAP points but there is no July meeting. I had about 25 fry, so I wasn’t worried. Over the next couple weeks, I started to loose the fry; one by one they died. By the time of our August meeting, I had 4 fry left. Damn! Not enough for BAP.
They’ll spawn again, I thought. They did. I watched them one evening as they spawned. As soon as a female placed her eggs on the glass, another female came over and ate them.
Advance to this June. I was feeding the fish and noticed a blur on the glass (I take off my glasses when I feed so I can see). I squatted down to inspect and there were about 30 eggs. This was a small spawn and I was tired so I left it alone. The next day after work, they were still there so I picked them off. About 20 eggs hatched. I left these in the cup for a week, until they were eating. I then transferred them to a two-gallon tank filled with water from the parent’s tank. I did make one concession to Kevin Korotev, and turned up the sponge filter and added another air source to increase the current. I also had a small clump of Java Moss in the tank. There was no problem with the group after the first week and there were 13 left. A week ago I lost four one day and I thought, not again. I did a water change and kept my fingers crossed. There are still 9 fry left, enough for BAP and the meeting is tonight. This wasn’t a rousing success but at least I can now pass the adults to Kevin for further spawning. Good Luck.
First publication: 2003 – Splash, Milwaukee Aquarium Society – 2003
Source: Aquarticles (no longer available)
Copyright images: Peter Maguire
